Vanessa's Inheritance
by Mary7Magdalene
Summary: When an extaordinary young girl from our own world enters Eragon's, she becomes part of his story.
1. Prologue: Vanessa

A tune played in Vanessa's head, and her shoes slapped the broken sidewalk to it's light rhythm. After a few steps, she added words to the melody under her breath. Walking home from school she had gotten enough strange looks for singing aloud or talking to herself that she knew not to make it too painfully obvious she was less than normal. Normal, in fact, was a word that could be used in the same sentence as her name only if the word isn't was between them.

She dressed normally enough, and her family was anything but extraordinary. It was Vanessa's peculiar outlook on life which made her peers uncomfortable around her. She didn't mind much- either people liked her the way she was, or they didn't, and there was nothing she could do about it without changing herself. And she liked the way she was, even if it brought her trouble.

She liked doing things that made her heart race, although adrenaline was hard to come by in this small town, within walking distance of neither an urban nor a rural area for her to reek havoc. She like thinking: spending hours alone with the air and the time and her thoughts. In her thoughts, she sometimes lost hold of herself and felt as though it wasn't her _in_ the world, but rather that she _was_ the world. She found folds of her consciousness that didn't fully belong to her, half-in, half-out. She told nobody these secret thoughts— she could imagine how a conversation like that would go: full of peculiar looks and patronizing questions and false excuses to leave her to her questionable sanity. After many futile attempts to get others to talk with her about things she felt or saw or heard in the confines of her thoughts, Vanessa decided that she just paid more attention than others, and if they didn't bother to see the mystery of the world they lived in, well, who was she to burst the plain, safe little bubble people made for themselves. After all, ignorance is bliss.

Vanessa also had a secret. She had power, a way with things unusual. Strange incidents seemed to surround her like an aura, and she planned on finding out why. Today she intended on taking all her strength and pouring it into that piece of her mind that was only partly her own. She would find out what that power was and how to use it, the moment she got home


	2. Chapter 1: Change

Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Vanessa closed her eyes. This was not unlike meditation, she decided, of the same sort she did almost daily. She knew where in her mind that familiar-yet-foreign bit of herself resided, and had encountered it many times before, poking and prodding gently, and carefully, and cautiously. It had never done more than shift in response, but her instincts told her that is was alive, and active, if only she would unleash it. She had learnt to trust her instincts.

She didn't seek it out right away, but rather began by dropping into a calm, relaxed meditation first. Breathing deeply, in through the nose, out through the mouth, she put away all her distractions. Empty of thought, she approached the corner of her mind she wished to magnify. She stroked it with her consciousness, trying to emanate friendliness and peace, in case it was sentient. _Like a dog_, she reflected amusedly from the detached bit of her thoughts that anchored her to reality.

Steeling herself, she pressed harder, and to her surprise, it pushed back. The harder she bore down on it, the more it crowded her back. But not threateningly, she realized—encouragingly. It wanted her to fight. A test? Or a way to prove herself? She wasn't sure, but she was certain that she wanted to pass. Excitedly, Vanessa threw all of her effort into breaking the barrier dividing her from the 'it'.

There was only one bit holding her back: her anchor.

She hesitated. Sometimes she felt as if she could let go of her body with her mind and fly away, but she had always resisted the enticing idea. Now, she wondered. Could she let go? If she did, would the outcome harm her? In opening the strange energy, she could cut herself of from sanity. She might find herself unable to return to her body, stuck forever in an ethereal existence—or worse, cease to exist entirely. A sudden prod from the sense of 'other' made her decision for her.

She steeled herself, released her hold on her physicality, and thrust into the 'other' with everything she was.

The world went white.

She was numb.

Her extremities prickled and her mind was sluggish and muzzy. She blinked open her eyes and examined her surroundings blearily. She was clearly outside, but she wasn't sure where. How had she gotten here? It took several uncomfortable seconds before she remembered the meditation.

Where was she?

She listened for cars, a lawn mower, an aeroplane—any sign of where she should go to find someone to tell her where she was and how to get home, maybe even how she got away from home in the first place. Everything sounded like exactly what she would expect listening to a recording, or watching on a telly. She stood warily, a little shakey, and wandered around. She was in a little clearing, and she could hear running water nearby, which was strange because she lived nowhere near a stream or brook of any kind. She followed the sound to investigate.

It was a river. Broad and swift, the glittering water swept a mostly straight path, dividing the land effectively. Now, without any tree branches obsuring her vision, she could see that the land was not flat, but that she was in a broad valley, mountains rimming the sky. _Now,_ she thought, _I know for sure I'm lost..._

Sighing resignedly, she sat at the stoney riverbank and dragged her bare feet in the cool water. The air trobbed around her pleasently, and her skin prickled. The _presence_ she had once felt within her now surrounded her. The entire valley thummend with energy and life. She lounged for a while, losing track of time, and drowsed off.


End file.
